It’s an ascent into madness.
Mountain rescuers in Wales claim they’re constantly rescuing amateur climbers up high amid a spike in regional hiking content on social media.
“The team has dealt with some panic attacks,” the Ogden Valley Mountain Rescue Organization wrote while describing this peak anxiety in a Facebook post.
The rescues occurred at Tryfan, a 3,010-foot mountain in Ogden Valley, Snowdonia that’s known for its treacherous rock scrambles.
So far this year, the Ogden Valley team has been dispatched 97 times to rescue people from its face.
During their latest rescue, the alpine responders had to rescue a group of four who were trapped 600 feet from the summit by one of their party who “couldn’t move” because they were having a “panic attack.”
“After calming the casualty and providing reassurance, the group were all helped back down the mountain,” wrote the rescuers.
Meanwhile, on July 12, a report claimed that a party of four became stuck on the north ridge of Tryfan, before they were located and escorted back to the main path, the Telegraph reported
In light of the myriad incidents, the Ogden Valley squad issued a warning to inexperienced climbers thinking of attempting the climb.
“Tryfan has considerable exposure with lots of climbing over/around ridges and edges,” they cautioned “Tryfan is difficult to navigate over in a traditional manner, especially in poor weather.
They added. “There is no straight line to the car park, don’t be tempted to descend gullies just because you can see the valley floor.”
Local residents have blamed social media for this ascent into madness, claiming that picturesque videos and pics are giving amateur alpinists a false sense of its difficulty.
Last summer, rangers at Snowdonia National Park implored visitors to stop uploading media content from their climbs as they struggled to handle the tsunami of guests following the COVID-19 epidemic.
In a May video with nearly 50,000 views on TikTok, a Gen Z content creator @brooklynlouisa could be seen summiting Snowdon, the tallest mountain in Wales with a height of 3,560 feet.
“The views from the top were just absolutely breathtaking,” she gushed in the video.
Another shows influencer @hollyhunter101 making the same ascent several years ago.
The clip is captioned, “When you randomly decide to climb Mount Snowdon with no hiking experience.”
